LEGOLAND® Discovery Centre’s iconic LEGO character – called Buddy – today lent a hand to award winning Social Enterprise MOTIV CIC in support of school pupils developing good attendance habits as a life long skill.

Pupils at All Saints Primary School in Newton Heath, Manchester were treated to a visit from ‘Buddy’ to launch their 100% Challenge for Attendance which is available to all schools in Greater Manchester. The MOTIV 100% Challenge recognises both excellence and significant improvements in school attendance, rewarding school attendance in two categories – 100% attendance and 100% effort in attendance.

The scheme is run by award winning Manchester Community interest Company MOTIV CIC and was very successful last year as part of Manchester City Council attendance drive (in association with Crayola), with 54% of all pupils (aged 5-16) with improved attendance.

Headteacher Lorraine Tennant commented ‘We are committed to doing everything we can to giving the pupils at this school the best start in life but we can only do that if they are committed to being here, without fail, unless they are sick. The assembly is designed to give them a vision for their future and what it might hold if they work hard and come to school, on time, everyday.’

The class assembly features role play with the LEGOLAND Discovery Centre model maker to demonstrate to pupils what affect poor and attendance and lateness would have in the real world of work. The class with the highest attendance from last term will be treated to a demonstration from the LEGOLAND Discovery Centre team.

MOTIV Director Rose Marley who is a winner of the Women in Ethical Business Awards (Tridos Bank & The Times) commented ‘the LEGO brand is a popular and trusted brand amongst pupils and the LEGOLAND Discovery Centre is an ideal environment to engage youngsters in their learning through play. It’s an ideal message we are putting out their for kids with the Centre – if you work hard, you get rewarded, it’s a lesson for life!’

Neil Crittenden, General Manager of LEGOLAND Discovery Centre commented ‘It’s a superb way for us to put something back into the community, knowing we can make a social impact with our LEGO character. Putting children first is at the heart of the LEGOLAND Discovery Centre brand, so we are of course happy to endorse Buddy’s efforts to support the idea of private companies playing a bigger part in that community.’

If you would like more information about running The 100% Challenge with LEGOLAND Discovery Centre in your school please contact Sam Evans at MOTIV on (0161) 282 8380 or via sam@motiv.org.uk

Click here to find out more about LEGOLAND Discovery Centre, located at The Trafford Centre, Manchester.

Almost 30,000 Manchester pupils improved their school attendance this year.

The news that more than half the city’s primary and secondary pupils have had fewer days off school, comes as Manchester celebrates its record GSCE results.

A major drive to improve school attendance began in January led by Manchester City Council, working with schools and parents. Since the launch of the Citywide Attendance Campaign 29,383 pupils (54% of all pupils aged 5-16) have had better attendance and of these 7,191 (13.59% of all pupils aged 5-16) improved their absenteeism by 10% or more.

Councillor Sheila Newman, Executive Member for Children’s Services at Manchester City Council, said: “These figures show the direct link between good attendance and getting good results. Absenteeism rates have reduced in the year where the number of pupils who achieved five or more GCSEs at grade A* to C has risen to 45% from 38.6% last year. This is fantastic news for everyone involved.”

The Citywide Attendance Campaign was threefold: it included publicity about the benefits of good attendance; a motivation programme and reward system for pupils from MOTIV CIC; and a step-up in home visits and enforcement measures for parents where necessary.

During the spring and summer terms Manchester’s primary and secondary schools participated in the MOTIV 100% Challenge commissioned by the council. Pupils with 100% or improved attendance earned badges, rewards and participated in celebration events.

In addition, a total of 3,325 home visits were carried out across Manchester in the spring term. During this monitoring period 2,500 warning letters were sent to parents. After the letters 1,500 pupils did not have any further unauthorised absences. Close consultation with schools over the remaining pupils resulted in 554 penalty notices being issued, of which 235 have led to further legal intervention.

By the end of the spring half term Manchester’s results showed that:

Absence rates in primary schools had decreased from 6.31% last year, to 5.54% this year;

Absence rates in secondary schools, including academies, had decreased from 10.39% last year to 9.27% this year;

Absence rates in maintained secondary schools had decreased from 9.89% last year to 8.71% this year.

The rate of persistent absence, classed as pupils who have missed 32 or more days, has also improved:

In primary schools persistent absence reduced from 2.9% last year to 1.77% this year;

In secondary schools including academies it reduced from 10.62% last year to 8.62% this year;

In maintained secondary schools it dropped from 9.63% last year to 7.48% this year.

Cllr Sheila Newman concluded, “Parents, teachers and pupils should all be congratulated on their hard work. But, we can’t afford to be complacent when it comes to our children’s futures and we must keep up the momentum in September with the new academic year.”

Recently published national data, which is due to be validated in October, indicates that Manchester’s secondary school absence rates have improved by four places in country’s overall performance during the spring term, and that primary schools have come in line with the national average during the same period.

Please contact MOTIV on (0161) 282 8380 or support@motiv.org.uk to find out more about the success of The 100% Challenge in Greater Manchester and other local authorities.

Saturday Morning Rocks 2010 was a huge success – many thanks to Daisy Dares You for an excellent live set, to Scam for hosting the show, Vitaminwater for the drinks and to Hard Rock for providing mini burgers and a great venue!

& of course thank you to all the pupils and chaperones who made up the audience – for a full list of attending schools please see below.

We filmed the whole event and will be producing a video of the day very soon but in the meantime we have uploaded some photographs from the event to Snapfish – you can view the images as a gallery and order prints and a collage using your MOTIV Reward Card to claim up to 30 free prints and 1 collage (please see the T&C on your Reward Card for further details)

Click here to view the MOTIV Saturday Morning Rocks Snapfish gallery and to order prints. Please note that you will need an adult to set up your Snapfish account if you have not already got one.

On Saturday 19th June over 300 secondary school pupils from 27 schools across Greater Manchester will come together to celebrate completing The MOTIV 100% Challenge for school attendance at Hard Rock Manchester for an exclusive, invite-only concert by DAISY DARES YOU.

Supported by Manchester City Council and Oldham Council and produced by award winning social enterprise MOTIV The 100% Challenge was issued to every primary and secondary school across Manchester to encourage greater school attendance across Manchester.

MOTIV Director Rose Marley commented ‘Daisy Dares You is an ideal choice of artist for this great celebration of achievement as she is a shining example of hard work resulting in reward. Attending pupils will get to find out more about the entertainment industry on the day though – they can’t all be rockstars but they can all have a successful career if they put the effort in!”

Saturday Morning Rocks will be headlined by Sony Records artist DAISY DARES YOU. Daisy, who is 16 years old and was signed to Sony last year and has already enjoyed huge chart success with Number One Enemy , featuring a guest appearance by Chipmunk. Daisy describes her music as “delirious funky produce”. “I really do feel ready for this,” she says. “This is the best thing that could’ve happened to me.

Not a lot of people my age get a chance like this to perform and release their own records.” Daisy’s aspirations for herself remain at 100% “I’m not aiming too high at this point. But a global smash hit would be nice.” She comments.

The 100% Challenge has been running in over two hundred schools across Greater Manchester in Spring and Summer Terms. Pupils have been rewarded with exclusively designed badges at each half term and if they completed a whole term with full attendance or significantly improved attendance they receive a special reward tailored to their year group and their school.

Councillor Jack Hulme, Cabinet Member for Children and Families said: “Oldham Council is anticipating some positive results at the end of this school year. We have been working hard as an authority and with MOTIV for the past couple of years and we can really start to see that relationship bear fruit”

The MOTIV 100% Challenge is delivered by MOTIV on behalf of Oldham Council and Manchester City Council as part of a range of measures to poor tackle poor school attendance and low aspiration across the city. Early results from Manchester indicate a significant improvement in school attendance over the whole year with a 19% increase in full attendance across Spring Term.

“This is going to be a fantastic event for the young people who attend. They thoroughly deserve this exciting reward for their good attendance in school and for demonstrating through this that they value their education and understand the importance of attending school every day they should.”

Rose Marley said: “A child’s future can be mapped out by their attendance record so it’s important that we communicate in a way that is appealing. It’s not just about reward though, through events such as this, we demonstrate just what can be achieved through hard work, teaching pupils valuable skills and raising aspirations in the process.”

Painting Brighter Futures

The Painting Brighter Futures galleries are now live in the Manchester, Nottingham and Oldham microsites – please click on each area to view them.

In association with Crayola, MOTIV produced the ‘Painting Brighter Futures’ resource to get children thinking and talking about what they aspire to be. It also illustrates that there is a direct link between good attendance and their futures.

Thank you to all the pupils and teachers for all their hard work – we received 100’s of entries from primary schools across Manchester, Nottingham and Oldham.

Those pupils fortunate enough to have won a special star prize from Crayola will receive it from the school as we will be sending the prizes out with the HT5 100% Challenge badges. If your school entered the competition and has yet to submit your badge figures for HT5 please do so as soon as possible by clicking here

Pupils across Oldham are being rewarded for their school attendance this week with designer 100% badges from Crayola and Ben Sherman.

In support of The 100% Challenge Oldham Athletic mascot Chaddy The Owl visited Limehurst Primary and Limeside Primary this week to distribute badges to pupils who’d completed The 100% Challenge in the first half term.

The badges form part of The MOTIV 100% Challenge supported by Oldham Council. The 100% Challenge rewards pupils who get to school on time, every day, all term. They receive exclusively designed badges at each half-term if they do so, and if they complete a full Spring term every pupil receives a reward tailored to their year group and their school. The Challenge operates on two levels: 100% attendance and 100% effort for attendance. This dual approach celebrates the achievements of everyone, from hard-working, responsible pupils to those who make a significant effort to improve their attendance record.

Pupils will be rewarded at the end of term with Crayola colouring packs, and MOTIV Reward Cards including Hollywood Bowl Family tickets, free entrance to Laser-ace, Asylum Paintballing and OAFC match day tickets. Additional family rewards can also be won and include family meals at YO! Sushi, Nando’s and an exclusive family film screening at the ODEON cinema.

“Attendance habits are formed at an early age and by celebrating achievements with small but meaningful rewards it encourages peers to aspire. Families are a really important part of the equation and by offering rewards that appeal to parents or guardians we can ensure the whole school gets behind The 100% Challenge”

Mrs H. Arya, Headteacher, Limeside Primary

“Oldham Athletic Football Club are delighted to be supporting The MOTIV 100% Challenge in Oldham for the third year in row. Good attendance is as important at the football club as it is in school – to be a professional footballer you have to attend training and matches every week on time and this enables them to be the best they can be.”

Pupils from the schools across Greater Manchester were recently given a golden opportunity to pitch their ideas for a news feature to Channel M Today, at The Channel M Experience, hosted by URBIS. It was the final event from the MOTIV 100% Challenge which ran across Greater Manchester schools in Spring Term 2009. (more…)

MOTIV have avariety of packages available to you for Summer Term if you would like to keep up The Attendance Challenge in your school. You can keep up the challenge with just the badge system (new colours available in the designer badge range) and you can also purchase Crayola rewards at a subsidised cost if you are a Primary School or Reward Cards if you are a Secondary School. These rewards can also be used for end of school year attendance prizes. (more…)

Local rock stars Kid British were on hand to give out designer badges to pupils at South Chadderton School in Oldham. The badges were being awarded for school attendance as part of the MOTIV Attendance Challenge. (more…)